You should note the following key information about CGI scripts on your Positive account:

1) Scripts can run from anywhere

On your Positive Internet account CGI scripts may be located anywhere within your webroot. in other words anywhere within public_html or a sub directory thereof. Your don't have to run scripts from a cgi-bin directory, although for legacy code reasons you may create a cgi-bin directory if you wish. Many people prefer to create a directory called 'cgi' and place all their scripts in there, but this isn't essential either as you can place scripts wherever you please.

2) Scripts MUST be uploaded in ASCII format

All CGI scripts must be uploaded via FTP in ASCII transfer mode, not in binary transfer mode, or else they will become corrupted and won't run. This is one of the commonest causes of script failure that we encounter, so always check that your CGI scripts are uploaded in ASCII transfer mode. This is usually easily set for most FTP clients. If using a publishing tool such as Dreamweaver, you'll probably want to configure the software so that all files with a .cgi or .pl extension are uploaded in ASCII transfer mode. NOTE: you cannot use ASCII transfer mode for all your web files, as images will corrupt if not uploaded in binary format.

3) Scripts MUST have the correct permissions

Ensure your scripts are set as readable, writable and executable only by you - if you don't then the web server will not execute your CGI scripts. You must follow the following guidelines when setting permissions on CGI scripts:

• All CGI executable files (e.g. files ending in .pl, .cgi etc) must have their permissions set to either 700 or 755. You can do this via SSH (secure telnet) with the command 'chmod 700 filename' or via most FTP clients (by setting them to read-write-execute for user only).

• All files that need write access (such as counter log files, message board files, guestbooks etc) should have permissions set to either 500 or 755.

• Any directories containing scripts should be set to 755 (they usually are by default anyway).

Our servers will not run a CGI script which is deemed to have insecure or too open permissions. For this reason, setting a script up which can be executed or written by all users will result in a script which refuses to run. In general if a script's instructions tell you to change permissions to 777, you will almost certainly find that the script will not run. You should ignore the script's instructions and use 700 or 755 instead - it is safe to do so and indeed recommended as our method provides better security. Watch out in particular for directory permissions, these should always be set to 755.

Please don't hesitate to email us if you have a script problem which you feel is related to permissions or other server issues, we will do our best to advise you on the best permissions for a script. We can't of course support just any script, as scripts can vary in standard and readablitiy, however we will certainly be able to rule out a server problem and best advise on steps to take to try to get scripts working.